Africa, Asia and Greece

Do you all remember the story of Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel Mary Ann? No? Read it. Think about it. And think about our blog ok?
Now that that's settled lets talk about our travels. So, when we left Cairo, we left Africa. The next day we landed in Istanbul, we landed in Europe. That night, for coffee we went to Istanbul, we went for coffee in Asia. Three continents in two days. That's pretty BA.
So in Turkey we spent some time outside of Istanbul and were able to see the incredible natural pools at Pammukale, the incredible catholic ruins at Cappadocia and, of course, Ephesus. A crazy amount of history, biblical and otherwise.
We spent that night on a fantastic sleeping train in a cabin, complete with beds, that took us from Istanbul to Xanthi, Greece where we met a wonderful couch surfer Panagiotis. From Xanthi, our plan was to hitchhike to Thessaloniki and we tried, but only got as far as Kavala, where we were picked up by an amazing man Gregorios. Kavala is great and if you ever come, maybe you too can experience spending 68 Euro on cleaning your clothes. Great. Wonderful. We shop at Goodwill and cleaning them has just doubled the amount of money we spent on them in the first place. Patience.
Life is good and we're heading to Athens tonight.

Mike Mulligan. Read it.

Istanbul

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze upon Istanbul.

Alphonse de Lamartine

Turkey here we come

We are both itching to start the second month of our journey in Turkey. We fly to Istanbul in just a few hours and will be greeted by Berna- a couchsurfer we met while in Cairo. We are sad to leave our friends here in Cairo, but are excited for our future travels.

Just a few pictures

Pat holding one of Maya and Nour's baby goats in Dahab... aren't they adorable?

Freezing on Mount Sinai

The Temple of Karnak

Abu Simbel in Upper Egypt... a breath taking site

Floating in Lake Siwa... extremely salty!

(Ahmed, Brad, Patrick)

i forgot

and we hiked Mout Sinai for the sunrise.

To the borders.

Sorry for the lack of updates people, we've been on one heck of a wild ride. Our first venture (it's cool if you follow on a map) was to the Siwa Oasis, near Libya. In Siwa we stayed in just about the middle of nowhere, on the skirts of the Great Sand Sea. A big old Toyota LandCruiser took us out into the Sea and we splashed around in what can only be described paradise. We spent hours breathing in the toxic fumes let out of the engine that needs no smog checks, and when our lungs were no longer forced to breathe in the slow death, we found ourselves in the middle of the desert, surrounded by sand for miles, with a gorgeous blue lake offering sweet respite from the sweltering desert heat. From Siwa, Paula and I left the group we had been traveling with to cut out on our own, with a few blissful days in Marsa Matrouh and the famed city of Alexandria. The brilliant waters off the Egyptian coast were, i apologize for my repetitivity, but paradise as well. How much beauty can one country hold? Our spirits were deflated slightly as we got on the 12 hour train ride to Aswan, 12 incredibly slow, dark, stinky hours. We made it to Aswan and Paula fell in love. My heart? I left it in Alex. Aswan is this small...paradise...wrapping its cozy self around the green waters of the Nile. The river itself threads its way through boulders the size of LA apartment buildings and scattered throughout you can see the tall masts of the small feluccas perforating the hot blue sky. We felt it necessary to hop on one of those feluccas and sail down to the temple of Kom Ombo, which took the better part of a day sailing and a fitful rest on the Nile that night. A microbus took us from Kom Ombo to Edfu and then Luxor. Luxor. The Valley of the Kings? Tutankhamun's grave? Are you kidding? Luxor was just crazy historical fun tomb and temple hopping. Luxor was hot, and we were mentally drained from the tremendous amount of activity the ancient and contemporary Egyptians had/have provided us with so we set out to relax. Where could we possibly relax? We've seen the Libyan border, we've seen the Sudanese border, we've seen the Mediterranean border, that just leaves the Sinai Peninsula and the Saudi Arabian border. Dahab here we come. 12 hour train ride? Psh, lets talk about the 18 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab. Apparently the ferry from Hurgada to Sharm el Sheikh wasn't running, so our bus to us north to the Suez Canal then back up and around the peninsula to Dahab, on the Gulf of Aquaba. Dahab was paradise (somebody get me a thesaurus!) and we whittled away the day snorkling at the 'Blue Hole' and smoking sheesha on the beach. In case we needed excitement, our couch surfing hosts, Maya and Nour, had a couple of camels, Ruby and Shakira, who spent the day in the dirt and dust with a bunch of goats. To say the least, they were dirty. Can you picture a bathtub big enough for a camel? Neither could we, so we were forced to take them to the sea and rinse them off. Yea. We bathed camels. We're now back in Cairo, home sweet home, just long enough to wash some clothes and maybe even wash ourselves with something besides salt water. Family and friends, we're having a blast and we appreciate all your prayers and emails of comfort. Uploading pictures is a pain in the ass so we'll have a nice big party when we get home with a slideshow ok?
Love to you all and everyone who isn't reading this that should be (Skip).